In their response(s) to President Obama’s State of the Union address, GOP leadership had one story on immigration in English and another in Spanish. In the English version, we heard about “stopping illegal immigration.” In the Spanish version, Republicans seem to be hinting at amnesty (“offer a permanent and human solution to those who live in the shadows”), again betraying conservative principles. From the Miami Herald:

The Republican Party’s immigration split was reflected Tuesday in the two responses hand-picked party members gave — one in English, one in Spanish — to President Obama‘s final State of the Union address. …

Here’s what South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in English:

No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.

At the same time, that does not mean we just flat out open our borders. We can’t do that. We cannot continue to allow immigrants to come here illegally. And in this age of terrorism, we must not let in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined.

We must fix our broken immigration system. That means stopping illegal immigration. And it means welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion. Just like we have for centuries.

I have no doubt that if we act with proper focus, we can protect our borders, our sovereignty and our citizens, all while remaining true to America’s noblest legacies.

Here’s what Miami Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart said in Spanish (translation is ours):

No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love the United States should ever feel unwelcome in this country. It’s not who we are.

At the same time, it’s obvious that our immigration system needs to be reformed. The current system puts our national security at risk and is an obstacle for our economy.

It’s essential that we find a legislative solution to protect our nation, defend our borders, offer a permanent and human solution to those who live in the shadows, respect the rule of law, modernize the visa system and push the economy forward.

I have no doubt that if we work together, we can achieve this and continue to be faithful to the noblest legacies of the United States. …

President Obama and his Democratic cadre have been working towards the destruction of American values as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Most, though not all, Republicans, have given Obama everything he wants — to the absolute delight of the Democratic faithful. Concerned citizens, many of whom consider themselves conservatives, have tried to use the ballot box to constrain Obama and friends’ agenda by voting for a Republican opposition — and working assiduously to organize grassroots lobbying to remind the Republicans they’ve elected to oppose the grand “liberal” dream of destroying a good thing: the United States of America.

We recently discussed Sarah Palin very eloquently expressing dismay over the current GOP congressional delegation, aptly comparing them to “abusers” and extending the metaphor to place voters as Republicans’ “battered wife.” Now Daniel Horowitz of the Conservative Reviewpaints in more of the picture — with a historical context — regarding the uselessness of having a congress in which Republicans control both houses (“Top 10 GOP Betrayals in 2015″). Please read his entire commentary as he summarizes the most important battles of our time against an out-of-control Democratic machine — battles we must continue to fight and win for the sake of this republic. Here’s a teaser from Horowitz’s full article:

2015 will likely be remembered as the year the GOP base finally rebelled against the party leadership, taking the half-century long schism within the party to the point of no return. The betrayal by the party establishment was so profound and blatant that GOP voters everywhere discovered what many of us have known for years — the party establishment does not share our values. …

This ain’t your grandfather’s Democrat Party; nor is this the party of Tip O’Neill or even Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer of the early ’90s who supported border security and religious freedom respectively. This is the party of transgenders, illegal aliens, and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the party of licentiousness, totalitarianism, and post-Americanism. So yes, the consequences of remaining silent and even tacitly supporting this agenda are more deleterious than the ineptitude of former GOP House Minority Leader Bob Michael in fighting Democrats of yesteryear.

Last November, Americans went out and voted for a GOP Congress. Out popped Democrat policies, much like the rigged ballot machines in Maryland that would render Republican votes as Democratic ones. As Chuck Schumer jubilantly declared following the omnibus bill, “the bills we’re passing reflect Democratic values.” He boasted that “even though we’re in the minority, we are passing a program that we have been for all along.” …

Let’s take stock of the top 10 betrayals of this year that have precipitated the final divorce of the GOP elites and its party base:

1. Reelecting John Boehner

2. Funding the Entire Amnesty Program

3. Corker-Cardin Iran Deal

4. Social Issues, Religious Liberty, and Judicial Tyranny

5. Funding of Planned Parenthood

6. Criminal Justice Deform

7. The Great Fiscal Betrayal

8. Obamatrade

9. Islamic Refugees from the Middle East and Africa

10. Surrendering the Power of the Purse …

The good news? You can’t fool all the people all the time. This year voters will respond to these betrayals, and if the polls are any indication, it appears the establishment is in for a rough 2016.

… For the last seven years, grassroots conservatives rallied to action under the belief that change starts at the ballot box. As I’ve said many times: there is nothing wrong with this country that a good old-fashioned election can’t fix.

People put their own lives on hold to send these Republicans to Congress to take back control of the House and Senate, to get a handle on our bankrupt federal government, and put America on the right track. I think of all the cross-country redeye flights I took away from my young son in order to campaign for Republican candidates, so full of promises, over the years. Others gave up a lot more than I did to elect a “conservative” majority.

Together, we grassroots conservatives gave the GOP historic electoral victories because they promised us they would stop Obama’s “fundamental transformation of America.”

H-2B visas to replace American workers with cheap unskilled foreign workers? Yep, that’s in there too.

What about funds for the fence that we so desperately need on our southern border? Nope, sorry, they couldn’t find any money for that.

Basically, everything commonsense conservatives despise — and Republicans promised to put an end to if elected — was funded by this omnibus.

They weren’t worried about the promises they made to us. This omnibus was written by lobbyists for lobbyists and passed by corrupted politicians fulfilling promises to these cronies with deep pockets. They campaigned one way, then governed another way.

This is why people hate politics and politicians. This is why they tune out and stay home. Reading through chunks of this bloated spending bill that drives us further into bankruptcy I steamed, “That’s it. They can’t be trusted. I’m outta here because they do not stand on the planks of the GOP platform, not one iota.”

But you know what, my fellow conservatives — that’s what the GOP establishment wants us to do!

They want us to leave the Party or just sit out elections.

Without us around, their handpicked puppets can be elected in gerrymandered districts without any pesky conservative primary challengers.

The Congressional GOP establishment doesn’t care about winning national elections. As far as they’re concerned, Hillary can have the White House — just so long as they can keep their cushy jobs on Capitol Hill.

In fact, having a Democrat in the White House is probably good for business. They don’t want to have to lead on anything — they’ve had ample opportunity to do so! — and a Democrat president is a nice foil for them. They can enjoy the status quo, enjoy all the crony capital cash, enjoy the perks of office, and as the country continues to crash and burn, they can tell the folks back home it’s all President Hillary’s fault.

Thankfully, not everyone with an “R” after their name is happy with the corrupt status quo. And there are a lot more good guys in Congress now thanks to the Tea Party.

So, no, it’s not time to leave the GOP. We’re going to make our abusers leave.

Please tell your senator to vote YES on Vitter amendments #849 and #850 to the Budget Resolution. These amendments would express the sense of Congress to end the outdated practice of Birthright Citizenship and to defund Pres. Obama’s 2014 unconstitutional amnesties.

Please tell your senator to vote NO on Hatch amendment #646 that would instruct Congress to increase the number of foreign tech workers.

Please tell your senator to vote YES on Grassley amendments #960 and #958 that instructs Congress to pass legislation that makes E-Verify mandatory and protects American workers before companies can petition for H-1B visas.

It is imperative that you contact Republican senators and representatives and their “leaders,” Mitch Mcconnell and John Boehner, who betrayed conservatives (people with common sense) and funded President Obama’s executive amnesty. Tell them to abide by conservative principles, you know what they did, you’re watching, and you’ll vote based on their actions. All their names and contact info is provided below. Please share this information widely so we can expose these deceivers. They must know that voters are watching them and will publicize their deception. The fact is that House Speaker John Boehner, and later Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, planned the whole “defunding” of Obama’s executive amnesty to fail from the start. A key promise made by Republicans during campaigning for the November 4, 2014 elections was to stop executive amnesty for at least 5 million illegals. From Breitbart:

Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), says it’s “un-American” for President Barack Obama to consider implementing an executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens across the country.

“It’s unconstitutional, illegal, and we don’t support it,” Priebus replied when a Tea Party activist asked him about the president’s plans for an executive amnesty on a conference call hosted by TheTeaParty.net on Monday evening.

“I don’t support it. It is wrong,” Priebus said. “It is un-American for a president to try and do such a thing. I want to make it clear: There is no part of me, there is not a molecule in my body that agrees with the president on executive amnesty.” …

Republican leadership seems on the verge of caving in, breaking their November 4, 2014 election promises, and funding President Obama’s blatantly unconstitutional executive directives to grant amnesty to approximately 5 million illegal immigrants. Did Republicans get the message voters sent in the November 4 election? Republicans took the Senate, strengthened their hold on the House, took a good number of state houses, and won an amazing number of governorships, but voters weren’t solely endorsing the GOP — not by a long-shot. Voters were more concentrated on repudiating President Obama’s policies and those of his out-of-control “liberal” establishment. But, before dissecting the intentions of GOP leaders (and many in the rank and file), PLEASE ACT NOW TO STOP OBAMA’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL EXECUTIVE AMNESTY:

Americans in general, by a 50-point margin, wanted tougher rules against hiring illegal immigrants, and that included a majority of Hispanics (56% to 37%). …

Are a bunch of Republicans simply pandering to the business lobby, looking for cheap labor and/or looking to fill positions in sectors like tech in which there’s a deficit of qualified workers (e.g., mobile app developers)? But who cares? Amnesty is not what American voters want as evidenced by many polls and the outcome of the November 4 election. The bottom line is that Republicans — especially their “leadership” — have broken promises they made in the run-up to the November 4 election. So is this just about getting re-elected? — because it sure looks like citizens are more likely to vote for politicians who oppose amnesty. Again, from Breitbart:

Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), says it’s “un-American” for President Barack Obama to consider implementing an executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens across the country.

“It’s unconstitutional, illegal, and we don’t support it,” Priebus replied when a Tea Party activist asked him about the president’s plans for an executive amnesty on a conference call hosted by TheTeaParty.net on Monday evening.

“I don’t support it. It is wrong,” Priebus said. “It is un-American for a president to try and do such a thing. I want to make it clear: There is no part of me, there is not a molecule in my body that agrees with the president on executive amnesty.” …

“Clean” means funding Obama’s amnesty. McConnell is not standing on principle, everything’s political calculus for staying in office.

No matter. We only got to this sorry state of affairs because millions of Americans have been disengaged from the political process.

I guarantee you this: If senators get thousands of calls, emails, faxes, petitions, letters, tweets, etc., they’ll start getting more responsive to voters. They know that people who take the time to contact them are extremely likely to vote, vote on principle, and to throw out unprincipled legislators as fast as they were voted in. Please act now.

I just published an Apple-based mobile app entitled “Jeff Byrd for U.S. Congress, New Mexico” (click to download app). I share it with you because it lays out how a good grassroots campaign for a candidate should be run. It’s free. I encourage you to download it and try it and learn from it, as it provides a template for any good grassroots effort. Here’s a summary of how it works (from the app description):

We can do it. We can stop giving a free ride (immigration amnesty) to the 11 – 20 million illegals in this country. It’s up to the House and the House is controlled by Republicans — and there’s only 16 more days left in this year’s session. Thanks to NumbersUSA, you can immediately send a free fax to your House rep by filling in a few text boxes and pressing a button. The form will automatically find and route your fax to your House rep based on your zip code. Please use and distribute this link:

With 20 million Americans unable to find a full-time job, it’s important that illegal aliens not be given work permits, legal status, or amnesty as part of any immigration reform legislation. I hope you will cosponsor H.Res. 326 and make it clear that amnesty is not the sort of immigration reform America needs. …

Americans have gotten used to, and quite fed up with, many of our elitist politicians who “Do As I Say (Not As I Do).” Isn’t it about time that all Americans live as equals? Have we fought so many great battles — the Revolution, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement — just to end up with elitist politicians pushing us around, not caring about what we who pay for their cushy jobs believe in? One of our politicians, Rand Paul, is demanding that Americans do live as equals. Now the question is: Can we get enough people in the U.S. together to start the ball rolling to propose Paul’s amendment to the United States Constitution as described in Article Five? (Click here for the process by which we amend our constitution.)

Oct 21, 2013WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Rand Paul last week introduced S.J. Res. 25, a Constitutional amendment that would hold government officials to the same standard as the American people. The amendment states that “Congress shall make no law applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to Congress.” The amendment also contains two provisions that apply that same principle to the Executive Branch and Judicial Branch of the federal government. The amendment text can be found below:

S.J.RES.25

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to applying laws equally to the citizens of the United States and the Federal Government. (Introduced in Senate – IS)

SJ 25 IS

113th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. J. RES. 25

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to applying laws equally to the citizens of the United States and the Federal Government.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

October 11, 2013

Mr. PAUL introduced the following joint resolution; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to applying laws equally to the citizens of the United States and the Federal Government.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:

‘Article–

‘Section 1. Congress shall make no law applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to Congress.

‘Section 2. Congress shall make no law applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to the executive branch of Government, including the President, Vice President, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and all other officers of the United States, including those provided for under this Constitution and by law, and inferior officers to the President established by law.

‘Section 3. Congress shall make no law applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, including the Chief Justice, and judges of such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.

‘Section 4. Nothing in this article shall preempt any specific provision of this Constitution.’

President Obama’s maneuverability, domestically and internationally, will depend on the outcome of the very critical November, 2014 six-year-itch election campaign, which is already underway.

The outcome of Obama’s second midterm election — which clipped the wings of many second term presidents — will determine his capability to become a transformational president. It will either coalesce House and Senate Democrats around him, or will doom him to a lame duck presidency, transferring top Senate leadership positions and all committee and subcommittee chairmanships to the GOP.

On their current trip to Cairo, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), two of President Barack Obama’s most persistent critics on everything in foreign policy from Syria to Benghazi, have found common cause with him at last.

All three fear that the anti-American (and generally anti-human) Muslim Brotherhood (MB), whom they mistakenly see as “moderate,” will disappear from the halls of power in Egypt, our most important Arab ally. They also evidently worry that the MB’s leading figures, such as now-deposed (and arrested) President Mohamed Morsi—who had awarded himself powers greater than any previous ruler in Egypt’s history—will not be free to plot a return to power in an ancient nation that he had nearly destroyed in only one year.

Earlier today, Egypt’s military government arrested former prime minister Mohammed Mursi on charges of conspiring with the terrorist organization Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian affiliate. That is as good as it gets in this part of the world. Hamas has murdered 457 Israelis and wounded more than 3,000 since 2000, according to the Israeli government. It is an implacable enemy of the United States as well as the State of Israel. Since taking power, the Egyptian military has shut down illegal tunnel traffic with Gaza, Hamas’ stronghold, and strangled its economy.

A recent opinion survey asked a sampling of Americans: “Which is a bigger terrorist threat to the United States today – radical Muslims, the Tea Party, local militia groups, the Occupy Wall Street movement, or other religious or political extremists?”

In reply, 51 percent of likely voters deemed Islamists the greatest terrorist threat, with Obama opponents weighing in at 75 percent and his supporters at 29 percent. In the words of the pollster, “Conservatives overwhelmingly see radical Muslims as the greater terror threat. Liberals are fairly evenly divided between radical Muslims and the Tea Party.”

Press attention on yesterday’s Senate debate has focused on the battle over the amendment proposed by John Cornyn to tighten border security metrics. It is an important discussion that will continue for some time. But I was more impressed with the strong performance of Ohio Republican Rob Portman in exposing the problems with the Gang of Eight’s proposal for a new E-Verify system.